Application Areas of the Shared Service Concept within the Romanian Health System

The Romanian healthcare system can be characterized by chronic under financing, leading to poor services towards the patients, corruption and high debts of the public institutions towards their suppliers. In order to cope with the situation, the Romanian state approved in 2010 the emergency ordinance 48/2010 on the decentralization of the health systems. Due to this legislation more than 370 hospitals across the country had been transferred under the administration of local public administration officials, whereas only roundabout 60 hospitals remained under the control of the Ministry of Health. As a consequence, local authorities have to familiarize themselves with questions concerning the proper management of the assigned hospitals. The present paper explores the different application areas of the shared service concept and the benefits this concept can add to the healthcare system. Three areas from the administration and from the operative function of the hospitals had exemplarily been selected in order to demonstrate the potential of shared services in terms of reducing the existing costs, while increasing the quality and performance of the services in question. In order to provide a holistic picture, possible disadvantages are highlighted and explained. The paper concludes that the benefits of the shared service concept can counterbalance the possible negative aspects and support the Romanian health system in overcoming this crisis and improve overall performance.Healthcare, Local Public Services, Shared Services, Contracting out, Privatization

Coastal and estuarine applications of multispectral photography

An evaluation of multispectral photographic techniques for optical penetration of water in the northeastern United States and the Gulf of Mexico coastal waters is presented. The spectral band (493 to 543 nanom), when exposed to place the water mass at about unit density on the photographic emulsion, was found to provide the best water penetration, independent of altitude or time of day, as long as solar glitter from the surface of the water is avoided. An isoluminous color technique was perfected, which eliminates the dimension of brightness from a multispectral color presentation

Visual slant underestimation

Observers frequently underestimate the in-depth slant of rectangles under reduction conditions. This also occurs for slanted rectangles depicted on a flat display medium. Perrone (1982) provides a model for judged slant based upon properties of the 2-D trapezoidal projection of the rectangle. Two important parameters of this model are the angle of convergence of the sides of the trapezoid and the projected length of the trapezoid. This model was tested using a range of stimulus rectangles and found that the model failed to predict some of the major trends in the data. However, when the projected width of the base of the trapezoid projection was used in the model, instead of the projected length, excellent agreement between the theoretical and obtained slant judgements resulted. The good fit between the experimental data and the new model predictions indicates that perceived slant estimates are highly correlated with specifiable features in the stimulus display

Multispectral photography for earth resources

A guide for producing accurate multispectral results for earth resource applications is presented along with theoretical and analytical concepts of color and multispectral photography. Topics discussed include: capabilities and limitations of color and color infrared films; image color measurements; methods of relating ground phenomena to film density and color measurement; sensitometry; considerations in the selection of multispectral cameras and components; and mission planning

Active learning and gendered achievement gaps in STEM

Although gender gaps have been a major concern in male-dominated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines such as physics and engineering, the numerical dominance of female students in biology has supported the assumption that gender disparities do not exist at the undergraduate level in life sciences. Using data from 23 large introductory biology classes for majors, we examine two measures of gender disparity in biology: academic achievement and participation in whole-class discussions. We also examined if, and to what extent, the characteristics of instructor-generated tests impact the exam performance of males and females in introductory biology courses. We collected 4810 students’ exam scores from 87 unique exams taken across three years of the introductory biology series. We determined the median Bloom’s level and the percentage of constructed-response questions for each exam. I will report on gender gaps observed in these groups and possible explanations for our findings and how they might impact how we assess our students

Mapping Itinerant Electrons around Kondo Impurities

We investigate single Fe and Co atoms buried below a Cu(100) surface using low temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy. By mapping the local density of states of the itinerant electrons at the surface, the Kondo resonance near the Fermi energy is analyzed. Probing bulk impurities in this well-defined scattering geometry allows separating the physics of the Kondo system and the measuring process. The line shape of the Kondo signature shows an oscillatory behavior as a function of depth of the impurity as well as a function of lateral distance. The oscillation period along the different directions reveals that the spectral function of the itinerant electrons is anisotropic.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Physical Review Letter

Investigation of unconventional reconstruction and electronic properties on the Na2IrO3 surface

Na2IrO3 is an intriguing material for which spin-orbit coupling plays a key role. Theoretical predictions, so far unverified, have been made that the surface of Na2IrO3 should exhibit a clear signature of the quantum spin Hall effect. We studied the surface of Na2IrO3 using scanning tunneling microscopy and density-functional theory calculations. We observed atomic level resolution of the surface and two types of terminations with different surface periodicity and Na content. By comparing bias-dependent experimental topographic images to simulated images, we determined the detailed atomistic structure of both observed surfaces. One of these reveals a strong relaxation to the surface of Na atoms from the subsurface region two atomic layers below. Such dramatic structural changes at the surface cast doubt on any prediction of surface properties based on bulk electronic structure. Indeed, using spatially resolved tunneling spectroscopy we found no indication of the predicted quantum spin Hall behavior